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PCWorld raved about Microsoft Surface Pro 3’s display. Now, professional display analyst Raymond Soneira has done so as well, proclaiming Microsoft’s tablet among the best in display quality.

In a report released Wednesday, DisplayMate’s Soneira said the Surface Pro 3 joins the top tier of tablet displays, just behind the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5. Soneira called the Surface Pro 3 “one of the very best and most accurate displays available on any mobile platform and OS,” with the most accurate on-screen colors of any tablet that the firm has ever measured.

Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 measures 12 inches on the diagonal, a supersized tablet that packs in 3.1 megapixels in a 2,160 x 1,440 IPS display that’s oriented in the 3:2 format. That’s 89 percent larger than the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9, the only other display to win “very good” to “excellent” rankings in all of DisplayMate’s evaluations. While the tablet’s 216 pixels per inch ranks below that of the iPad Air (264 ppi), Soneira said that, in effect, didn’t matter—pixels weren’t visible.

Normally, the larger screen real estate would result in a correspondingly larger power draw. But at 371 nits, the Surface Pro 3 isn’t as bright as some competing displays—a fault Soneira excused by noting that the size of the display makes it less suitable for using outdoors in bright sunlight. But the Surface Pro 3’s display consumes just 3.5 watts—a tenth of a watt more than the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9’s much smaller screen.

It’s the color accuracy, however, where the Surface Pro 3 shines—and when paired with images captured by Microsoft’s newly acquired Lumia phones (above, top) the results can be stunning. According to DisplayMate, the color gamut is 97 percent, with a 2.1 Just Noticeable Color Difference (JNCD). As Soneira notes, color accuracy is important for both creative professionals as well as consumers, whether viewing photos or trying to buy shoes or other clothes online.

Where the Surface Pro 3 falls slightly short is in display brightness and screen reflectance—again, areas where the Surface Pro 3’s indoor use and flexible kickstand help mitigate any deficiencies.

The bottom line, then, stands: We called the Surface Pro 3’s display “breathtaking,” and research now backs that up. With an improved kickstand and keyboard, the Surface Pro 3’s productivity increased markedly. Yes, Microsoft has priced the Surface Pro 3 at a premium, but more evidence is emerging that you’re getting what you paid for.

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If you think reconciling the Israelis and Palestinians is hard, try the Indians and Pakistanis. The latest war in Gaza has laid bare India’s and Pakistan’s different views about the Middle East, revealing a great deal about how these countries view themselves and each other. The newly elected Indian government of the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has become more confident about showing sympathy for Israel, bringing to the surface a relationship that has been growing for more than two decades. Pakistan refuses to recognize the Jewish state and its outrage over Palestinian deaths in Gaza is colored by its identity as a country bristling to defend the rights of Muslims around the world, from Palestine to Kashmir. These different worldviews could ultimately exacerbate the historical animosity between the two countries, and pit the pro-Israel Hindu right in India against the hawkish pro-military establishment in Pakistan.

In the early decades after independence in 1947, it was India rather than Pakistan that was particularly vocal about the Palestinian cause. The partition of Palestine to create the state of Israel in 1948, coming just one year after British India was partitioned to create Pakistan, was seen in South Asia as a legacy of British imperialism. India’s commitment tochampion the Palestinian cause fitted, therefore, with the anti-colonial spirit of the Non-Aligned Movement of which it was a leading member. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi — disliked by Pakistan for her role in its defeat in the 1971 war that led to the creation of Bangladesh — got on particularly well with Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat. In addition to its anti-colonial stance, India had powerful domestic political reasons for supporting the Palestinian cause. The Israel–Palestine conflict is viewed monolithically in South Asia as one primarily between Muslims and non-Muslims. Indian governments, wary of alienating Muslim voters who make up roughly 14% of the electorate, had an incentive to side with the Palestinians. Finally, India was determined to prove its secular credentials. Support for the Palestinians — which was then a leftist cause — was one way for governments in New Delhi to show they could fairly represent both Hindus and Muslims, thus demonstrating that Pakistan had been wrong to insist on the need for a separate homeland for Muslims.

While Pakistan also viewed Israel as having been imposed on Palestine as a result of European colonialism, it was nonetheless more circumspect because of its alliance with the United States during the Cold War. Islamabad’s close ties with Washington also meant it was regarded with suspicion by Arab nationalists and kept at arm’s length. Though Pakistan refused to recognise Israel, Pakistani support for the Palestinians in the early decades after 1947 came from the public rather than officials, who had a different message. Its future military ruler, then-Brigadier Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, massacred Palestinians on behalf of Jordan in the Black September civil war in 1970.

The end of the Cold War, Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait and subsequent defeat by the United States, and India’s own economic liberalization in 1991, all forced New Delhi into a major reappraisal of its policies towards the Middle East. The ideological approach that inspired the Non-Aligned Movement was replaced by a more pragmatic one designed to secure India’s economic and security interests. After siding mainly with secular Arab nationalists in the past, India began to improve relations with Saudi Arabia, a close ally of Pakistan, to secure its energy needs. Its new pragmatism also led it to give full diplomatic recognition to Israel in 1992. The two countries had much in common in terms of security. Both were status quo powers, with less incentive than their enemies to try to change the existing set-up — Israel when it came to Palestinian statehood and India in its conflict with Pakistan over Kashmir. Both were non-Muslim democracies that faced a threat from Islamist militants. Growing defense and security cooperation between the two countries bore fruit during theborder war between India and Pakistan in the Kargil region of Jammu and Kashmir in 1999. At the time, India was facing sanctions over its nuclear tests the year before. When India ran short of artillery shells, Israel stepped in to supply them. India and Israel have steadily increased defense cooperation ever since. Among other things, Israel provides India with high-tech defense equipment that New Delhi has traditionally failed to get from the United States because of U.S. laws about transferring sensitive equipment. This includes Israeli Phalcon airborne warning and control systems that could be used against Pakistan.

In contrast to India, Pakistan has become, if anything, more ideological in its worldview. After the independence of Bangladesh undermined the raison d’etre for Pakistan as a homeland for India’s Muslims, it became more strident in asserting its Islamic identity. The anti-colonialism fuelling support for Palestinians was viewed through a distinctly Muslim historical narrative , which implied that undivided India might have been freed from British rule far sooner had its Muslim inhabitants not been let down by the Hindus. This narrative also conflated anti-Hinduism with pan-Islamist sentiment in which Pakistan became the defender of all Muslims. This worldview gained in strength over the years as the Pakistan-run jihad against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan melded into its longstanding anti-India stance. Thus, for example, in one typical textbook for “Pakistan Studies” — a compulsory course in the country’s history and ideology — Hindus under the British Raj were players of a double game who let down the Muslims “on account of their primordial psyche.” The Pakistan Studies textbook, this particular one published in 2012 for use at the Islamia College University, Peshawar links Palestine to Kashmir, describing a resolution of both conflicts as integral to Pakistan’s national interests. Importantly, it stresses that Pakistan is committed to the peaceful resolutions of all conflicts, whitewashing Pakistan’s own role in nurturing Islamist militants to counter India, including in Kashmir. The narrative of victimhood, of a peaceful country forced to defend Muslims against threats both near in India and far in Israel, has served Pakistan’s security establishment well, allowing it to justify a large and politically powerful army. It is also self-perpetuating. Pakistan’s external behaviour — exerting influence through the use of Islamist proxies — has led to such difficult relations with India and Afghanistan that it can reasonably claim to be faced with hostile neighbors on both sides. This in turn empowers the military, reinforcing its role in domestic politics. The national narrative — which enmeshes Palestine and Kashmir, pan-Islamism with anti-Hinduism — has so far proved extremely difficult to challenge, whether in seeking peace with India, demanding a stronger role for democracy, or the full-scale dismantling of militant networks inside Pakistan.

The different worldviews of India and Pakistan have been on full display since the latest crisis over Gaza erupted. In New Delhi, the BJP-led government made a show of support for Israel by refusing to allow a resolution in parliament condemning it for the strikes on Gaza.  In 2006 , Prime Minister Narendra Modi, then chief minister of Gujarat state, visited Israel and promised to return. India’s support for Israel is somewhat hesitant and discreet for now. It voted in favor of a United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution launching an investigation into Israeli strikes in Gaza. BJP hawks, however, are calling for India to be much more vocal in supporting Israel. Domestically, the government appears to have room to do so. Having won national parliamentary elections this year despite suspicions over Modi’s role in presiding over the killings of Muslims in communal violence in 2002, the BJP is in a strong position to override any objections at home to warming ties with Israel.

Internationally, India has discovered that its relationship with Israel does not prevent it from building ties with Muslim countries, in part due to the Arab world’s own pragmatism and divisions on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and in part reflecting its own growing political and economic clout. Notably, it has been able to improve ties with Saudi Arabia — a country that is militarily close to Pakistan — while maintaining positive relations with Iran, a Saudi and Israeli rival. Growing world anger over high Palestinian civilian casualties might limit India’s public support for Israel in the short term. But the trend is clear. Neither concern about Muslim voters at home, nor traditional “Third Worldism” apply any longer to India’s policies towards Israel.

Pakistan responded to the crisis in Gaza by sponsoring the UNHRC resolution setting up an independent commission to investigate Israel’s behavior in Palestinian territory. It also promised to observe a day of mourning for the Palestinians by flying its flag at half-mast. On social media, popular outrage occasionally spilled into outright anti-Semitism — at one point #IfHitlerWasAlive was trending on Twitter in Pakistan. Clearly, Pakistan is not alone in being angered by the scale of Palestinian civilian deaths in Gaza. In other Muslim countries, resentment over Israeli policies is usually wrapped together with dislike of the West. Where Pakistan is unusual, however, is in its degree of hostility toward the United States, Israel’s main backer. The two countries have been at odds since the 1990s over Pakistan’s support for the Islamist militants it nurtured to counter India and exert Pakistani influence in Afghanistan. The U.S.-led overthrow of the Afghan Taliban in 2001 exacerbated these differences without ever fully bringing them to the surface, so that Pakistani public opinion is both deeply hostile and suspicious of anything the United States says or does. Pakistan also has the distinction of mourning Palestinians rather more than its own people at a time of a major domestic refugee crisis. Close to a million people have registered as internally displaced persons after fleeing a military offensive in North Waziristan and there areincreasing reports of civilian casualties in an operation that Pakistan, like Israel, says is to eradicate a threat from terrorism.

As the only country created specifically as a homeland for Muslims, and one that sees itself as an ideological Muslim state defending Muslim rights worldwide, Pakistan is particularly susceptible to the influence of external events. When Muslims are perceived to be ill treated by non-Muslims, in Palestine or Kashmir, Pakistan bristles with the sense of victimhood that allows it to justify maintaining a hyper-nationalist militarized state. In turn, it becomes a country that thrives on conflict, and where the military establishment dominates despite its incomplete transition to democracy. This is not necessarily the intention of many Pakistanis standing up for Gaza, but it is the effect. Outrage over Palestine feeds a carefully cultivated national narrative that wraps it together with perceived ill treatment of Muslims in Kashmir and conflates anti-India sentiment with pan-Islamism. Its stance will have no impact on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; for all its talk of human rights abuses, Pakistan cannot afford to annoy Saudi Arabia by siding too closely with the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Hamas.

The different approaches to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and to the Middle East as a whole, have long been a source of tension between India and Pakistan. By trying to steer a pragmatic course and maintain good relations with all players for its own economic, energy and security interests, India is increasing its diplomatic clout in the Muslim world, the very constituency Pakistan would like to consider its own. In doing so, it is pulling far ahead of its smaller, pricklier neighbor, accentuating Pakistan’s sense of victimhood. India is also using its relationship with Israel to build its high-tech military capabilities, giving Pakistan another cause for anxiety and another reason to prioritise defense spending.

While this is a longstanding issue, the latest crisis in Gaza comes at a particularly delicate time for South Asia. Both Kabul and New Delhi fear that as the United States prepares to withdraw more combat troops from the region, Pakistan will step up support for Islamist militants in Afghanistan and Kashmir. Pakistan denies this. Yet in its stridency over Gaza, wearing its support for Palestine as a badge of national honor, Pakistan is showing no sign of stepping away from its national narrative. It is one that leaves no room for pragmatism or compromise. It is not the kind of mood authorities would normally encourage if they planned on making peace with Pakistan’s neighbors. Rather it is one that has spilled into open conflict with India in the past, while reinforcing the power of the military at home.

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In July 2010, amid the gargantuan rebuilding effort at the site of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, construction workers halted the backhoes when they uncovered something unexpected just south of where the Twin Towers once stood.

At 22 feet (6.7 meters) below today’s street level, in a pit that would become an underground security and parking complex, excavators found the mangled skeleton of a long-forgotten wooden ship.

Now, a new report finds that tree rings in those waterlogged ribs show the vessel was likely built in 1773, or soon after, in a small shipyard near Philadelphia. What’s more, the ship was perhaps made from the same kind of white oak trees used to build parts of Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were signed, according to the study published this month in the journal Tree-Ring Research. [See Photos of the Ship and Its Tree Rings]

Archaeologists had been on-site throughout the excavation of the World Trade Center’s Vehicular Security Center. They had found animal bones, ceramic dishes, bottles, and dozens of shoes, but the excitement really kicked up when the 32-foot-long (9.75 m) partial hull of the ship emerged from the dirt.

Courtesy of Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, via Columbia University

Rings in the white oak timbers used to build the ship reveal that the vessel was built around 1773 near Philadelphia.

 

The vessel was quickly excavated, to prevent damage from exposure to the air. Piece by piece, the delicate oak fragments were documented and taken out of the rotten-smelling mud. The timbers were sent to the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory, where they would be soaked in water to keep the wood from cracking and warping.

A few timbers were sent back to New York, just 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of the World Trade Center, to the Tree Ring Laboratory at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York. Researchers at the lab dried the fragments slowly in a cold room and cut thick slices of the wood to get a clear look at the tree rings.

The team established that the trees used to build the ship — some of which had lived to be more than 100 years old — were mostly cut down around 1773. Then, to determine where the wood came from, the researchers had to find a match between the ring pattern in the timbers and a ring pattern in live trees and archaeological samples from a specific region.

“What makes the tree-ring patterns in a certain region look very similar, in general, is climate,” said the leader of the new study, Dario Martin-Benito, who is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. Regional ring patterns arise from local rain levels and temperatures, with wetter periods producing thicker rings and drier periods producing smaller rings, he said.

Martin-Benito and his colleagues at Columbia’s Tree Ring Lab narrowed their search to trees in the eastern United States, thanks to the keel of the ship, which contained hickory, a tree found only in eastern North America and eastern Asia. Otherwise, the researchers would have had much more difficulty in limiting their search, as oak is found all over the world. [Shipwrecks Gallery: Secrets of the Deep]

The ship’s signature pattern most closely matched with the rings found in old living trees and historic wood samples from the Philadelphia area, including a sample taken during an earlier study from Independence Hall, which was built between 1732 and 1756.

“We could see that at that time in Philadelphia, there were still a lot of old-growth forests, and [they were] being logged for shipbuilding and building Independence Hall,” Martin-Benito told Live Science. “Philadelphia was one of the most — if not the most — important shipbuilding cities in the U.S. at the time. And they had plenty of wood, so it made lots of sense that the wood could come from there.”

Historians still aren’t certain whether the ship sank accidently or if it was purposely submerged to become part of a landfill used to bulk up Lower Manhattan’s coastline. Oysters found fixed to the ship’s hull suggest it at least languished in the water for some time before being buried by layers of trash and dirt.

Previous investigations found that the vessel’s timbers had been damaged by burrowing holes of Lyrodus pedicellatus, a type of “shipworm” typically found in high-salinity, warm waters — a sign that the ship, at some point in its life, made a trip to the Caribbean, perhaps on a trading voyage. Martin-Benito speculated that the infestation might have been one of the reasons the ship met its demise just 20 or 30 years after it was built.

“I don’t know much about the life expectancy for boats, but that doesn’t seem like too long for something that would take so long to build,” Martin-Benito said.

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Ferrari seems to have a monopoly on the world’s most expensive cars. A 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO took that title last year with a $52 million sticker price. Yet it could be on the verge of being usurped… by another 250 GTO.

ALSO SEE: Compilation Of Supercars Starting Is A Great Use Of The Internet: Video

A seller in Germany recently placed an ad on the website Mobile for a 1962 250 GTO, with an asking price of 47.6 million euros, or about $62.7 million at current exchange rates. That includes Germany’s 19 percent Value Added Tax, but if someone bites it would still make this GTO the most expensive car ever sold.

This particular example is one of the first of the 39 250 GTOs to have left Ferrari’s factory. Each of the hand-built cars is a little bit different, perhaps creating a sense of uniqueness that could explain the recent frenzy of multimillion 250 GTO dollar sales.

Before the 1963 250 GTO was sold to its mystery buyer last year for $52 million, another GTO sold for $35 million. It took the title from yet another GTO, which sold for $28.7 million in 2008.

MUST WATCH: Bugatti Veyron Super Sport Hits 246 MPH On Public Road: Video

This trend doesn’t look like it will run its course anytime soon. The 19th 250 GTO—built in September 1962—is set to cross the block at this year’s The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering event on August 15.

The 250 GTO isn’t the only vintage Ferrari model commanding sky-high prices. A 1954 375-Plus crossed the block at $18.3 million at the Bonhams auction held at the 2014 Goodwood Festival of Speed, and a 1965 275 GTB/C Speciale could sell for at least $34 million at the RM Auctions event in Monterey, California, this August.

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Islamabad- Pakistan Railways will procure 75 new locomotives to improve its efficiency and facilitate passengers for their timely journey.
Various international companies including General Electric of the United States have expressed their interest to provide these locomotives to Pakistan Railways. The federal government has allocated 4.6 billion rupees for the procurement of new locomotives during the current financial year. Ministry of Railways has decided to issue open international tenders for the procurement of locomotives focusing on long term joint ventures with the providers.

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“Neither the Muslim League Working Committee nor I ever passed a resolution [called] ‘Pakistan ka matlab kya‘ — you may have used it to catch a few votes,” said Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah when a Muslim Leaguer chanted this slogan at the last session of the All India Muslim League.

Unfortunately, the slogan-monger prevailed over Jinnah.

Those who believe in this slogan now dominate Pakistan. Those who remember what Jinnah said on this or other occasions can be counted on fingers.

The poem, “Pakistan ka matlab kya,” was written by a schoolteacher from Sialkot, Asghar Sodai. He lived a long life (Sept. 26,1926 – May 17, 2008) but never had any direct political influence.

His poem, however, proved to be the most influential piece of poetry ever written in Pakistan. It was more influential than the poetry of Iqbal and Faiz put together, seeing as this single poem shaped the country’s official ideology.

Pakistan was carved out of India because the Muslims of the subcontinent demanded a separate land for themselves. They did so because they felt that an early exposure to Western education and British patronage had put India’s Hindu majority well ahead of them. They could not compete with them in a united India.

The Pakistan Ideology: History of a grand concoction

But the leaders of the political movement that led to the creation of Pakistan were secular Muslims, who appeared more interested in creating a British parliamentary democracy than an Islamic state.

Most of those who could have had a desire to create an Islamic state, the subcontinent’s Muslim clerics, were against the creation of Pakistan. This, however, did not prevent the same clerics from trying to convert Pakistan into an Islamic state once it was created.

The effort to forge a single religious identity out of half a dozen ethnic groups, each having a distinct language and culture, had the consequences that all such efforts do. Whether Jinnah wanted an Islamic state or not, however, is now irrelevant. Islam is the state religion and it is written in the Constitution.

The army has been trusted with the job of protecting the country’s ideological frontiers, along with the real borders. As Pakistan’s brief history shows, the army always invoked the holy task whenever it toppled an elected government, and rightly so; the constitution indeed gives the army the responsibility of defending both Pakistan and Islam.

But has this constitutional Islam helped Pakistan? Apparently, not.

Just seven months after Partition, it became clear that Islam was not enough for some of the Muslims of this state. They wanted more.

The first threat to the new Islamic republic came from its most vulnerable point, the former East Pakistan. The Bengali Muslims, who once backed the Pakistan movement to end Hindu domination, soon felt that the new state was challenging their very identity as Bengalis.

Pakistan became independent on Aug. 14, 1947, and on March 24, 1948, Jinnah addressed a special convocation at the Dhaka University where he declared that Urdu will be the only national language of Pakistan. The students chanted, “no, no, no,” telling him that they wanted this status for their language, Bangla.

On Nov. 27, 1948, a young student Ghulam Azam read the welcome address for Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan when he visited the university. Ghulam Azam reminded Liaquat that they wanted two things, provincial autonomy and Bangla as a state language.

This very same Ghulam Azam later founded Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh and gained notoriety for his alleged role in war crimes during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. On July 15, 2013, a tribunal sentenced him to 90 years in prison.

The Bangla language movement continued to spread and reached its climax on February 21, 1952, when police killed a student demanding official recognition for their language. On Nov. 17, 1999, UNESCO declared February 21 the ‘International Mother Language Day’ for the whole world to celebrate.

Political Islam: Rise, fragmentation and possible fall

In 1956, the central government granted official status to the Bengali language but by then it was already too late. After a long and bloody struggle, in 1971 East Pakistan became Bangladesh.

Bengalis opted out of Pakistan but they remained a Muslim nation. Mosques in Bangladesh have more namazis than those in Pakistan do. Their madrassas produce more scholars — most of them non-jihadis — than those in Pakistan do. The Bangladeshi Tableeghi Jamaat is larger than its Pakistani counterpart. Even religion-based political parties have a larger following in Bangladesh now than they did before 1971.

This contradicts the claim that Islam and Pakistan are inseparable, and that separation from Pakistan also means separation from Islam.

This obsession with linking religion and politics has hurt Pakistan, both internally and externally. Like Bengal, in three of the four remaining provinces — Sindh, KP, and Balochistan — many view this obsession as an excuse for suppressing their own separate ethnic and lingual identities. They also believe that the centre uses Islam to prolong its control and to continue the economic exploitation of the smaller provinces.

Externally, other nations — including those in the Muslim world — have always ridiculed Pakistan’s claim that it is the leader of the Islamic ummah.

The first nation to ridicule Pakistan’s leadership claims was Egypt, not India.

King Farouk of Egypt, who ruled from April 23, 1936 to July 26, 1952, famously snubbed Pakistan’s Islamic pretensions.

During a recent visit to Washington, a group of Pakistani journalists were offended when an Arab journalist politely told them that his government had asked him not to mix up with Pakistanis. Asked why, he said: “Most Pakistanis have links with terrorist groups.”

Pakistanis living in the West often have similar experiences when they try to befriend people from other Muslim nations. Muslims in other regions – from Egypt to Indonesia and North Africa to Central Asia – equate Pakistan with terrorism, not Islam.

Terrorists who attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, were all Arabs, mostly Saudis or Saudi-inspired, but few blame Saudi Arabia. Pakistan gets the blame because in their eagerness to display their Islamic credentials, many Pakistanis openly express their sympathies with these jihadi groups.

Political Islam: Why militants now symbolise Muslims

During the Afghan war, Pakistan foolishly allowed terrorists of all ilk and color to settle in the country, practice jihad and train local jihadis. By 1990s, the country had tens of thousands of hardened jihadis and soon they became so powerful that they started dictating their terms to their Pakistani handlers.

So far, more than 50,000 civilians and 6,000 Pakistani troops have been killed by these jihadis. Some of them have been mercilessly slaughtered like sheep upon capture. Other victims have been blown to pieces by suicide-bombers eager to join the company of virgins waiting for them in heaven.

Pakistan has now launched a major military offensive to defeat the jihadi militants, but many across the world still doubt its sincerity because of the country’s past affiliations with these groups.

The time has come for Pakistan to break up its ties to these groups and learn to live as an independent, secular, and honourable nation. This does not involve severing our ties to Islam.

Even as a secular state, Pakistan will remain a Muslim nation, as most other Muslim states do. We can still be proud of our Islamic heritage without any ties to the religious militancy that the world has come to associate Pakistan with.

NEW DELHI/ISLAM­ABAD: India and Pakistan traded doubts on Friday over the delay in two terror trials — the Mumbai nightmare trial that New Delhi wants to be hastened, and the Samjhauta Express bombing, which Pakistan believes has taken too long a time in the trial stage.

In a briefing to The Hindu, a Pakistan high commission spokesman said the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks trial was a judicial matter and there was nothing the government could do over the adjournment of the trial.

The spokesman also expressed concern over the delay in the Samjhauta Express blasts trial in India, the paper said.

Earlier in the day, India summoned Pakistan’s deputy high commissioner in New Delhi, two days after the ongoing trial of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks was adjourned in Pakistan on Wednesday.

In a conversation with The Hindu, the Pakistan High Commission said it had conveyed its inability to “do anything” in the matter to the Indian government.

“Like everywhere else in the developed world, the judiciary (in Pakistan) is independent… the executive has nothing to do with it,” Manzoor Ali Memon, the spokesperson for the Pakistan High Commission, said.

The report has been published on the paper’s website.

“Our job is to present evidence and prosecute the accused…we cannot push the judiciary…it is an independent institution and takes its own time,” said Mr Memon.

He expressed concern over the delay in the 2007 Samjhauta Express bombing case, in which 68 people were killed, most of them Pakistanis.

“Families of the Samjhauta Express (blast) victims are waiting to see the perpetrators of that heinous incident brought to justice,” said Mr Memon.

Pakistani Muslim extremists, allegedly close to the establishment, have been named in the Mumbai terror attacks of November 2008. Hindu extremists considered close to the Hindutva establishment have been named in the Samjhauta bombing when the train was travelling from Delhi to Attari.

Similar views were reiterated to Indian deputy commissioner in Islamabad Gopal Baglay by the Pakistan Foreign Office, The Hindu said.

It said Ms Riffat Masood, Director General (South Asia and Saarc) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the Indian deputy high commissioner that the 26/11 trial was taking its legal course and efforts were being made for its early conclusion.

Ms Masood said it was “necessary that the outcome of (Samjhauta Express case) investigations be shared with Pakistan at the earliest”.

The trial of the seven Pakistani accused, going on in a Pakistan anti-terrorism court, was adjourned for the seventh time on Wednesday, leading to India’s “strong diplomatic protest” with Pakistan on Friday.

“The Pakistani deputy high commissioner in New Delhi was summoned to the Foreign Office today. Also the Indian deputy high commissioner went to the Pakistan Foreign Office and has lodged a similar protest,” official sources told The Hindu.

The exchange came as the two countries prepared for a meeting of their foreign secretaries next month for discussions on resumption of peace dialogue suspended since January last year.

In the meetings — in New Delhi as well as in Islamabad — Indian officials sought regular briefings on the progress of the trial and the investigation being conducted by Pakistani authorities, the paper said.

Indian officials also reiterated the “high importance India attaches to bring to justice all those responsible in Pakistan for the Mumbai terrorist attacks”, the sources said.

The last two hearings in the trial could not take place because of the presiding judge being on leave. Earlier, on four occasions, the trial could not be held owing to the prosecution lawyers being absent over security reasons.

In June, the trial, which was going on in an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi, was transferred to another recently set-up ATC in Islamabad.

The seven Pakistani nationals being tried for planning and executing the 26/11 attacks are: Lashkar-e-Taiba operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Anjum.

Pakistan says there is no hard evidence to try extremist ideologue Hafiz Saeed while India sees him as the mastermind of the Mumbai terror attack.

The Foreign Office spokesperson had at an earlier media briefing in Islamabad on July 17 said: “The trial of the accused in Mumbai case is proceeding. It’s not held up. Unlike this, however, the trial of those accused in Samjhota terrorist attack in which Pakistanis were the victims, is not progressing. I am not saying that we want to hold up progress on one because of the other. But we do expect that Pakistanis who have been victims of terrorists would also get justice.”

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NEW DELHI: Indian tennis star Sania Mirza broke down in tears on Friday after being described by a politician as “Pakistan’s daughter-in-law” and unfit to be an Indian representative.

Sania Mirza, 27, who is married to Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik, wiped away tears as she told India’s NDTV network she was tired of continually being forced to defend her “Indian-ness”.

“I am a very patriotic person. That is why I am so emotional right now,” she said in the interview aired on television.

“After winning medals for India after I got married, (I) don’t know why I have to keep justifying that I am Indian,” Mirza said.

In comments reported earlier this week by local media, K. Laxman, a regional legislator belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), questioned the credentials of Sania Mirza to be “brand ambassador” for India’s newest state, Telengana.

Laxman was quoted as saying her marriage to Shoaib Malik made her a “daughter-in-law” of Pakistan.

“Telangana is proud of Sania,” a spokesman for the state government said in appointing her brand ambassador for the region.

Telangana was carved this year out of the state of Andhra Pradesh, in southern India. Sania Mirza grew up in Hyderabad, in what is now Telangana.

“Fans across the country don’t think her Indianness has gotten mysteriously diluted,” because of her wedding to Malik, the Times of India said in an opinion-page piece.

Mirza, who has played for India at all major-level sporting events, has been defended by leaders across the political spectrum, including BJP members who said its party member’s comment did not reflect its official stance.

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In honor of National Tequila Day, bars and restaurants are offering deals like $2 shots and $2 margaritas—and in at least one case, margaritas are totally free.

Thursday, July 24, is being celebrated as National Tequila Day, yet another of what seems like an endless stream of fake, completely made-up holidays. Contrived marketing scheme or not, today’s holiday comes with a range of tequila-infused deals and promotions in bars and restaurants around the country—so, yeah, there’s good reason to celebrate.

Nationally, the On the Border restaurant chain is selling $2 house margaritas and $2 shots of Lunazul Reposado Tequila all day at participating locations. Other national chains with National Tequila Day specials include Abuelo’s, where hand-crafted margaritas are $5.95 all day, andChevy’s, where deals like $2 house margaritas and $4 shots of Cuervo Silver or Cinge come with the added bonus of being available not only on Thursday, but every day through Sunday, July 27.

Individual bars and restaurants have National Tequila Day specials of their own, so it’s as easy as doing a “Tequila Day Deal + Your Town” search to find them, or just show up at your local watering hole and hope for the best. Here’s a sampling of what you’ll find, thanks to the help of local bloggers and writers around the country:

New York City: Horchata, in Greenwich Village, is teaming up with Patron and is giving away free margaritas featuring the new tequila Patrón Rocca from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. A half-price happy hour stretches from 4 to 7 p.m. as well. Sources such as Metro list tons of other spots that are primed for celebrating National Tequila Day on Thursday.

Washington, D.C.: The options include $3 shots of Sauza Blanco atAgua 301.

Las Vegas: Cabo Wabo has had half-priced tequila shots since Monday, while Park on Fremont and The Salted Lime offer $2 drink specials.

Houston: Look for $2 tequila shots, $1.99 margarias, and $5 appetizers at restaurants throughout the city.

We’ve also come across National Tequila Day promotion roundups forDenver, Phoenix, and all over Connecticut, so suffice it to say: If you’re hankering for a tequila deal today, head to the nearest downtown bar-and-restaurant district and you’ll find one.

As an added unexpected bonus/justification for bar-hopping tonight, a recent health study has found that the sugars in tequila could help you lose weight. Cheers!

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Eleven Filipinos converted to Islam here after Taraweeh prayers on Wednesday, a local mosque has announced.
The expatriates recited the Shahada at Jamiya Al-Salheen Mosque in Quwaiza under the guidance of Sheikh Hamdan bin Nasser Al-Juhani, in front of hundreds of witnesses.
Manny Estanislao changed his name to Younes and said that he accepted Islam because he found it the right way to reach the Lord. This had taken place after he watched Muslim Filipinos practice their faith, and read the holy Qur’an and other Islamic books in his own language.
Stanalow said he came to understand Islam. “I don’t want to burn in Hell in the Hereafter. My heart was always searching for the truth and never at peace until I found Islam. I love the true nature of Islam and its message of peace and giving to others. I am glad that I accepted the true religion on one of the best nights in the blessed month of Ramadan,” he said. 
Esa Deleon, a Muslim from the Philippines who converted many years ago, and was present at the mosque, said that many more people would convert if they have a true understanding of the religion.
Deleon said the bad behavior of some Muslims drives people away from Islam. In addition, non-Muslims misrepresent Islam, which also results in people failing to get a proper picture of the faith.
Another witness at the mosque, Hafizur Rahman, said that Muslims should present their religion in a simple manner and not resort to harsh behavior. He said history has shown that people accepted Islam all over the world by simply meeting Muslims and observing their way of life.
Muslims should also try to return to correct Islamic teachings and improve their behavior as instructed by Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him). In this way, Muslims can fight the negativity currently being spread by their enemies, he said.
He said Muslims are also obliged to carry the message to others like the Prophet (pbuh) even if it is only one verse. There are enormous rewards for those who bring others into the light, he said.
Meanwhile in Dammam, a total of 115 people converted to Islam at iftar and guidance camps in the southern part of the town during the first two weeks of Ramadan.
The events are organized by the Cooperative Office for Call and Guidance, Ghiras.
“On average, eight people convert per day,” said Walid Al-Thani, the office’s director.
Ghiras has disseminated around 26,000 publications, in addition to organizing 496 seminars and lectures.
“More than 500 people were able to perform Umrah through our office over the past two weeks,” he said. “We have six camps that have distributed over 96,000 meals to more than 6,000 people for iftar throughout Ramadan.”

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OUAGADOUGO, Burkina Faso — An Air Algerie jetliner carrying 116 people — including five Canadians — crashed Thursday in a rainstorm over restive Mali, and its wreckage was found near the border of neighbouring Burkina Faso. It was the third major international aviation disaster in a week.

The plane, owned by Spanish company Swiftair and leased by Algeria’s flagship carrier, disappeared from radar screens less than an hour after takeoff, en route from Burkina Faso’s capital of Ouagadougou to Algiers.

French fighter jets, UN peacekeepers and others hunted for signs of wreckage of the MD-83 plane in the remote region, where scattered separatist violence may hamper an eventual investigation into what happened.

The wreckage was found about 50 kilometres from the border of Burkina Faso near the village of Boulikessi in Mali, a Burkina Faso presidential aide said.

“We sent men with the agreement of the Mali government to the site and they found the wreckage of the plane with the help of the inhabitants of the area,” said Gen. Gilbert Diendere, a close aide to Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore and head of the crisis committee set up to investigate the flight.

“They found human remains and the wreckage of the plane totally burnt and scattered,” he said.

He told The Associated Press that rescuers went to the area after they had heard from a resident that he saw the plane go down 80 kilometres (southwest of Malian town of Gossi. Burkina Faso’s government spokesman said the country will observe 48 hours of mourning.

Malian state television also said the wreckage was found in the village of Boulikessi and was found by a helicopter from Burkina Faso. Algeria’s transport minister also said the plane’s remains had apparently been found. French officials could not confirm the discovery late Thursday night.

“We found the plane by accident” near Boulikessi, said Sidi Ould Brahim, a Tuareg separatist who travelled Thursday from Mali to a refugee camp for Malians in Burkina Faso. “The plane was burned, there were traces of rain on the plane, and bodies were torn apart,” he told The Associated Press.

Families from France to Canada and beyond had been waiting anxiously for signs of Flight 5017 and their loved ones aboard. Nearly half of the passengers were French, many en route home from Africa.

“Everything allows us to believe this plane crashed in Mali,” French President Francois Hollande said Thursday night after an emergency meeting in Paris. He said the crew changed its flight path because of “particularly difficult weather conditions.”

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, his face drawn and voice sombre, told reporters, “If this catastrophe is confirmed, it would be a major tragedy that hits our entire nation, and many others.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a statement saying he was saddened at news of the crash.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the passengers and crew who lost their lives in this tragedy,” he said in the statement, adding that it was confirmed Canadians are among the victims.

Tweets from the account of Lynne Yelich, Canada’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, said consular officials are ready to provide assistance.

Radio-Canada reported Thursday that a woman from Sherbrooke, Que., was on board. The CBC’s French-language service said Isabelle Prevost’s family confirmed the 35-year-old was one of the passengers.

The network quoted her partner, who was not identified in the report, as saying that their three children were meant to be travelling with her but that it was decided they should stay with him.

Radio-Canada also quoted Burkina Faso native Mamadou Zoungrana, who works as a technologist at the Papineau Hospital in Gatineau,Que., as saying that his wife and their two sons, aged six and 13, were on the flight. CBC reported they are not Canadian citizens.

Before the plane vanished, the pilots sent a final message to ask Niger air control to change its route because of heavy rain, Burkina Faso Transport Minister Jean Bertin Ouedraogo said.

French forces, who have been in Mali since January 2013 to rout al-Qaida-linked extremists who had controlled the north, searched for the plane, alongside the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA.

Algerian Transport Minister Omar Ghoul, whose country’s planes were also searching for wreckage, described it as a “serious and delicate affair.”

The vast deserts and mountains of northern Mali fell under control of ethnic Tuareg separatists and then al-Qaida-linked Islamic extremists after a military coup in 2012.